MasterCard and Myanmar’s Myanma Apex Bank have joined hands to launch a prepaid MasterCard service in the nation.
The MAB Travel Prepaid MasterCard aims to provide Myanmar customers with an easier way to pay for purchases during their travels or make online purchases.
The latest MasterCard survey indicates that three in five Myanmar consumers intend to travel within the next 12 months (either as much or more than they did in the past 12 months).
“Myanmar’s gradual opening up presents many opportunities for entrepreneurship and commerce to flourish,” MasterCard country manager for Thailand and Myanmar Antonio Corro said.
“Their progressive participation in the global payments system that MasterCard enables not only aids the development of the local payments landscape and the businesses that are a part of it, but also facilitates global connections.”
The launch forms part of MasterCard’s plans to expand its reach to previously unbanked markets. Besides the MAB Travel Prepaid MasterCard, the company has launched prepaid cards together with Co-operative Bank Ltd, Kanbawza Bank Ltd, Ayeyarwady Bank Ltd, and Myanmar Citizen Bank with 2C2P, the last of which was also Myanmar’s first smartphone-enabled Prepaid Card.
MasterCard also aimed to advance financial literacy in Myanmar by introducing financial educational programs in the country. A recent partnership with Ooredoo was aimed at making economic and finance materials more accessible to the Myanmar population, which would help democratize education as well. Pledging $10,000, MasterCard had helped expedite the translation of Khan Academy’s economic and finance videos into the Myanmar language so more people could benefit from it.
In 2013, MasterCard and global humanitarian and development organization, Mercy Corps, worked together to train women entrepreneurs in rural Myanmar. Through their partnership, a business literacy program called Business and Financial Literacy for Success was implemented, benefitting women entrepreneurs, allowing them to be educated on basic business skills and money management practices.